Ann Cleeves: Red Bones, the third book in the Shetland Quartet Contact Red Bones , the third instalment of Ann Cleeves' Shetland Quartet, is set in spring: a time of rebirth and celebration. And a time of death... for April is the cruelest month. Perhaps that's why was chosen as the basis for Shetland , a new two-part crime drama set in Scotland and starring Douglas Henshall. A special Shetland preview on November 21st was well received by the local audience, and Ann Cleeves gave it her approval too: "It's great," she said. "It's not faithful to the book but it's faithful to the atmosphere and spirit of the book. It's important that it's a good piece of TV rather than stick rigidly to the book." The transmission date has not yet been announced, but is expected to be some time in January. When a young archaeologist discovers a set of human remains, the island community is intrigued. Is it an ancient find - or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman is shot on her land in a tragic accident, and Jimmy Perez is called in by her grandson, his own colleague Sandy Wilson.

He finds two feuding families whose envy, greed and bitterness has divided the surrounding community. With Fran in London, and surrounded by people he doesn't know and a community he has no links with, Jimmy finds himself out of his depth. Then another woman dies, and as the spring weather shrouds the island in claustrophobic mists, the two deaths remain shrouded in mystery. Red Bones was long-listed for the Impac Dublin Award . Red Bones was first published in the UK in February 2009; the paperback edition followed in February 2010, and the TV tie-in edition in November 2012. Use the links to order a copy from Amazon.UK, or order from any bookshop, quoting the ISBN: Charnwood Large Print edition (published in September 2009). Now also available as a Kindle eBook . Red Bones is also available as an ISIS Soundings audio book read by Gordon Griffin; order it direct from the publisher in a choice of audio formats.

The US edition of Red Bones was published by Minotaur Books on September 1, 2009; order it from Borders.com or from BN.com , or place an order with your local bookstore, quoting the ISBN: 978-0-3123-8434-0. It is also available from the publisher in a choice of eBook formats , and in a Kindle edition . Read a Radio Scotland feature about Ann Cleeves and Shetland, or listen to the audio version . Find the locations described in Red Bones Kirkus Review said "Cleeves is expert at depicting hardscrabble island life, parental expectations and disappointments and emotionally charged silences.

Thoughtful readers should give Perez a try." "Ann Cleeves' fellow crime fiction practitioners (from Colin Dexter to Peter Robinson) have been lining up to sing her praises, and it's unlikely that there will be any blip in that chorus of praise on the evidence of Red Bones , which is quite as assured and entertaining as its predecessors,." Barry Forshaw "Cleeves is quietly carving out a reputation as the new Queen of Crime, and this chilling thriller should help her on her way." Sunday Mirror "Cleeves is a master of the stunning twist... She's also an expert stylist of deceptively spare prose and a creator of entirely realistic characters; this time out, she focuses on Sandy Wilson, thought to be dim and immature but who, under Perez's guidance, becomes one of her most intriguing creations.

"Permeated with place - Cleeves makes the Shetlands vivid in the reader's mind - and filled with a moral sensibility, Red Bones stands as a cautionary tale against letting the past fester into a lethal infection of the soul." "Like a smoky Shetland peat fire, this elegantly written, slow-burning intrigue shrouds you in mystery and crackles with inner heat." Peter James " Red Bones gives us plenty to chew on; an intricate plot, quirky characters and that special Shetland atmosphere, at once eerie and beautiful, that Ann Cleeves is making her own. Let's hope she keeps on going through all the colours of the northern lights!" Reginald Hill Ann Cleeves: The Shetland murder mysteries, featuring Jimmy Perez Congratulations to TV's Shetland crime drama, which has carried off two Scottish Baftas: when the winners of this year's awards were revealed, Shetland took the prize in two of the four categories for which it was in the running. Shetland itself won best television drama, and Douglas Henshall, who plays detective inspector Jimmy Perez, was named best television actor.

Director Jan Matthys (best director film/television) and Gaby Chiappe (best writer film/television) were also nominated. The BBC had already announced its decision to bring Shetland back for a fourth series. Douglas Henshall returns as DI Jimmy Perez, with other regular cast also returning. The six one-hour episodes (the same format as the brilliant series three) will be written by series one showrunner David Kane, and broadcast early in 2017. 'Shetland' panel at the Hay Festival 2016 Ann told BBC Radio Shetland that the response to the last series was "so astonishing" that she "always felt there was a very good chance that it would come back". Ann's Shetland books have already formed the basis of three series of TV crime dramas, which include stories based on the books, but develop in quite different directions, especially the six-part story which forms the whole of the third series. All three series are now available on DVD: Series 1 & 2 Guardian .

There's a more recent interview with Ann about Shetland - the place, the books and the TV series - on the KCET website, where you can read the interview or listen to the sound recording . After an epic book tour marking the publication this autumn of her new Shetland murder mystery, - 30 events in 30 days to celebrate 30 books in 30 years - Ann Cleeves is home for a well-earned rest! And maybe some time for writing, too... Cold Earth opens as Jimmy Perez attends the burial of his old friend Magnus Tait: but torrential rain triggers a landslide that reveals a totally unexpected body that of a dark-haired woman wearing a red silk dress. Her identity is a mystery Jimmy becomes obsessed with solving: perhaps it can help the dark-haired Fair Islander resolve some mysteries of his own. "One of the most memorable entries in the series." . Cold Earth is the seventh Shetland mystery featuring DI Jimmy Perez - not bad going for what was originally planned as a standalone story! "Jimmy was created because I thought there would just be one book," Ann told an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

"It seemed like it would be stretching credibility to kill off too many people in Shetland, with its small population." When that first story, Raven Black , was a big success, winning the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for the best crime novel of the year, Ann was persuaded to carry on with a quartet of novels, depicting the changing face of Shetland in all four seasons. And then a second quartet. But now, she says, "There will be just one more Shetland book after Cold Earth. And then the story is told." As for Jimmy, "I might kill him off." Perhaps she was joking: but readers who have been keeping up with the series so far know that Ann Cleeves is quite capable of dropping a bombshell. Naming names Congratulations to the winner of Ann's charity auction in aid of the Bardsey Bird & Field Observatory! Alicia Normand has chosen the name Robert Moncrieff (part of her husband's name) to be included in the final book of Ann's second Shetland Quartet, which she is about to start writing.

Ann says: "Just a bit relieved to have a Shetland name chosen - lovely that it's someone connected to the island too." But will Robert Moncrieff be killer or hero? Read more about Bardsey and the bird observatory there in Ann's diary or visit the BBFO website . Too Good To Be True Award-winning crime writer Ann Cleeves is a great believer in the importance of libraries and of reading. So she has written a new mystery featuring Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez from her bestselling Shetland series. But this is a Shetland mystery with a difference: Too Good To Be True is a gripping Quick Read which takes Jimmy Perez away from his home territory, all the way south to the Borders. When young teacher Anna Blackwell is found dead in her home, the police think her death was suicide or a tragic accident. After all, Stonebridge is a quiet country village in the Scottish Borders, where murders just don't happen. But Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez soon arrives from far-away Shetland when his ex-wife, Sarah, asks him to look into the case. The local gossips are saying that her new husband, Tom, was having an affair with Anna. Could Tom have been involved with her death?

Sarah refuses to believe it - but needs proof. Anna had been a teacher. She must have loved kids. Would she kill herself knowing there was nobody to look after her daughter? She had seemed happier than ever before she died. And to Perez, this suggests not suicide, but murder ... Too Good To Be True has been selected as one of 15 books to be given away, free, on World Book Night, April 23rd 2016. Organisers explained that the diverse line-up, spanning genres of crime, poetry, non-fiction, YA, historical fiction, and fiction in translation, was devised to celebrate "the enrichment that reading and books can bring to people's lives" encouraging those who don't already read for pleasure - an estimated 36% of adults - to get involved. Ann said "It's nice to be a part of this event, specially with the Quick Read Jimmy Perez!" Ann Cleeves's Shetland Ann Cleeves's bestselling series of crime novels, featuring Detective Jimmy Perez, and now also adapted for a major BBC television series, draw their inspiration from the place in which they are set: Shetland.

Ann says "If you'd like to know more about the islands where the show is filmed and the books are set, check out my non-fiction book. It's full of wonderful photos and explains why I love the place so much." It's a gloriously illustrated companion to the novels, taking readers through a year on Shetland, learning about its past, meeting its people, celebrating its festivals and seeing how the flora and fauna of the islands changes with the seasons. Whether it is the drama of the Viking fire festival of Up Helly Aa in winter, or the piercing blue and hot pink of spring flowers on the clifftops, the long, white nights of midsummer or the fierce gales and high tides of autumn, Shetland is vividly captured in all its bleak and special beauty. An archipelago of more than a hundred islands, Shetland is the one of the most remote places in the United Kingdom. Its fifteen hundred miles of shore mean that wherever one stands, there is a view of the sea. It has sheltered voes and beaches and dramatically exposed cliffs, lush meadows full of wild flowers in the summer and bleak hilltops where only the hardiest of plants will grow.

It is a place where traditions are valued and celebrated, but new technologies and ways of working are also embraced. You can see an extract from the book on the publishers' website . Shetland was published by Pan Macmillan on 22nd October 2015; it is available for from Amazon in hardback (ISBN: 978-1-5098-0979-0) or for Kindle . Shetland Quartets Raven Black was initially intended as a standalone novel - after all, how many murders could there be in Shetland? But the book was so successful, winning the first Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for the best crime novel of the year, as well as numerous fans, that Ann wrote another Shetland mystery, and then another - until she had completed a quartet covering all four seasons and a tour of the archipelago. For a fan's eye view of the original quartet, see The Book Resort , which gave the Shetland Quartet rave reviews during its Ann Cleeves Week; all the earlier books - plus an interview with Ann - are linked from the review of Blue Lightning .

They also held an informal chat with Ann , in which she answers the question: "Tell us one thing about yourself that most of your fans don't already know?". Now the Four Seasons Quartet is being followed by the Four Elements: Earth, Water, Fire and Air - but not in that order! Shetland Stories Ann has contributed a Shetland story - The Spinster - to OxCrimes , a star-studded anthology of the best in crime writing, published by Profile Books in aid of Oxfam. OxCrimes is introduced by Ian Rankin and has been curated by Peter Florence, director of Hay Festival, where it will be launched in May: read more on the publisher's website , which includes links to buy your copy from Waterstones or Amazon - or call in at your local Oxfam shop! My Shetland - two prize-winning short films chosen by Ann Cleeves to show readers of her Shetland Quartet what the islands look like to the people who live there. Or see a large image of the map on this site .

Amazon.com: Books Books Books Advanced Search New Releases Best Sellers The New York Times® Best Sellers Children's Books Textbooks Textbook Rentals Sell Us Your Books Best Books of the Month Kindle eBooks Ann Cleeves Ann is the author of the books behind ITV's VERA, now in it's third series, and the BBC's SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann's DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann's Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands... Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs - child care officer, women's refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard - before going back to college and training to be a probation officer. While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist.

She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. If a person's not heavily into birds - and Ann isn't - there's not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. Her first series of crime novels features the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. A couple of these books are seriously dreadful. In 1987 Tim, Ann and their two daughters moved to Northumberland and the north east provides the inspiration for many of her subsequent titles. The girls have both taken up with Geordie lads. In the autumn of 2006, Ann and Tim finally achieved their ambition of moving back to the North East. For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books!

She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival's first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries. Ann Cleeves on stage at the Duncan Lawrie Dagger awards ceremony Ann's short film for Border TV, Catching Birds, won a Royal Television Society Award. She has twice been short listed for a CWA Dagger Award - once for her short story The Plater, and the following year for the Dagger in the Library award. In 2006 Ann Cleeves was the first winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award of the Crime Writers' Association for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland Quartet. The Duncan Lawrie Dagger replaces the CWA's Gold Dagger award, and the winner receives £20,000, making it the world's largest award for crime fiction. Ann's success was announced at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Hilton, in London's Aldwych, on Thursday 29 June 2006. She said: "I have never won anything before in my life, so it was a complete shock - but lovely of course..

The evening was relatively relaxing because I'd lost my voice and knew that even if the unexpected happened there was physically no way I could utter a word. So I wouldn't have to give a speech. My editor was deputed to do it!" The judging panel consisted of Geoff Bradley (non-voting Chair), Lyn Brown MP (a committee member on the London Libraries service), Frances Gray (an academic who writes about and teaches courses on modern crime fiction), Heather O'Donoghue (academic, linguist, crime fiction reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement, and keen reader of all crime fiction) and Barry Forshaw (reviewer and editor of Crime Time magazine). Ann's books have been translated into sixteen languages. She's a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany. Her novels sell widely and to critical acclaim in the United States. Raven Black was shortlisted for the Martin Beck award for best translated crime novel in Sweden in 200. Bio and photo from Goodreads.

Mystery Fanfare: Ann Cleeves's Red Bones to be adapted by BBC Monday, May 7, 2012 Ann Cleeves's Red Bones to be adapted by BBC Ann Cleeves shared the news yesterday that BBC 1 has commissioned a 2 part adaptation from her Shetland novel RED BONES. The show stars Douglas Henshall and is directed by Peter Hoare who worked on Vera. Filming will be based in Shetland and the Scottish mainland. Love this series, and I can't wait for the show to wend its way to the U.S. Congratulations, Ann! Scots actor Douglas Henshall has been cast as the lead role in Shetland , a new two-part drama set in Scotland for BBC One, produced by ITV Studios through BBC Scotland, and written by David Kane, adapted from Ann Cleeves's books featuring Detective Jimmy Perez. Like the books, the powerful murder-mystery is set against the stunning Scottish backdrop of the Shetland Isles and centres on Detective Jimmy Perez (played by Henshall - The Kidnap Diaries , The Silence ), but there are differences, too.

Perez is recently widowed, a native Shetlander who has returned home after a long spell away. His bone-dry sense of humour and an idealistic desire to protect his beloved Shetland Isles from inevitable change make him a fascinating detective to watch at work. When a young archaeologist discovers a set of human remains, the island community is intrigued to know if it's an ancient find or a contemporary mystery. And when an elderly woman is shot on her land in a tragic accident, Perez and his team find themselves at the centre of two feuding families whose envy, greed and bitterness has divided the surrounding community. The Executive Producer is Elaine Collins, of ITV Studios, the team who brought Ann's Vera Stanhope to television. She says: "We are delighted to be working with the BBC on this commission. Shetland combines eccentric yet warm characters and a classic murder mystery story with the beautiful landscape and rich history of the Shetland Islands and we believe it will be hugely popular with viewers." Christopher Aird, Head of Drama, Scotland and Executive Producer, BBC adds: " Shetland has a fantastic combination of writing, acting, directing and producing talent.

It is a hugely exciting story and part of a project to bring the very best drama to BBC Scotland in the coming years." Ann Cleeves says: " I'm delighted that my old friends from ITV Studios have teamed up with the BBC to create a television adaptation of the Jimmy Perez book Red Bones . I couldn't be in safer hands. And it's brilliant that the UK now has its own Nordic TV drama!" Fans of Ann's Shetland Quartet will know that Red Bones is the third book in the quartet; new readers are recommended to start at the beginning, with Raven Black Ann Cleeves interview for Shetland - Telegraph Ann Cleeves interview for Shetland Ann Cleeves, the acclaimed crime fiction writer, discusses her new BBC crime drama, Shetland, with Adrian Lobb. Douglas Henshall as Detective Perez in ‘Shetland’ By Adrian Lobb 8:00AM GMT 09 Mar 2013 When you meet Ann Cleeves, the acclaimed crime fiction writer, there is no hint that she could make a living from getting inside the minds of murderers. Cleeves is softly spoken and bright eyed, and the only wickedness apparent is in her humour.

Yet, in October last year, the 57-year-old was admitted into the Crime Thriller Hall of Fame, a concept that the prestigious Crime Thriller Awards have come up with to honour the giants of their genre. Cleeves joins Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Colin Dexter and Jo Nesbo in the supreme literary sleuthing squad. Cleeves does, however, have a core of steel and this is exposed, just briefly, when talk turns to library closures. We meet at Newcastle’s Lit and Phil Library where Cleeves likes to write, with bookshelves towering over us. She says, quietly but with conviction, “It is absolutely appalling – we are becoming philistines.” Cleeves will be known to TV audiences as the writer behind ITV’s Vera crime series , starring Brenda Blethyn. But we’re here today to talk about BBC One’s new two-part drama Shetland, an adaptation of Red Bones, one of her crime novels set on the islands. It’s a tale of buried secrets, archaeology and, of course, murder.

The first of the Shetland Quartet, 2006’s Raven Black, was a breakthrough for the writer, 20 years and 19 novels into her career. “Several of those early ones are really awful – luckily, they’re out of print,” she says. Related Articles 50 crime writers to read before you die 23 Feb 2008 Raven Black won the important Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for crime novel of the year (and the impressive £20,000 that comes with it), moved its author into the big league and introduced readers to Detective Jimmy Perez. If Cleeves is an unlikely mine of criminal musings, then casting Douglas Henshall as Perez is equally unexpected. The books describe Perez as big and tall, with wild black hair – for all his qualities, the Glasgow-born actor is none of the above. “He doesn’t look anything like my Jimmy, but Douglas is quiet, authoritative, and a little bit edgy,” says Cleeves. “But it’s so much better to get a good actor than someone who looks like my Jimmy but can’t act.” The books capture the island landscape and communities beautifully.

It’s a region made to measure for crime fiction, with long hours of winter darkness and close-knit communities unused to fearing a killer in their midst. “If you write traditional crime fiction like I do, it is ideal, isn’t it?” says Cleeves. “Like Agatha Christie and the train stuck in the snow or the boat going up the Nile – it is the closed community where it is tricky to escape that works best for murder mysteries. “There was talk of making the TV adaptation in the Nordic Noir style, but Shetland isn’t at all like The Killing. It’s much quieter, less gruesome,” she says. The relationship Cleeves has formed with the islands stretches back to 1975, when she took a job as assistant cook at the bird observatory on Fair Isle. “I’d dropped out of university – I was studying English at Sussex and arrogantly thought I could read books anywhere. I was 19, looking for adventure and was running away from a proper job.” As life-changing journeys go, this one was a success.

Not only did Cleeves meet husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist, during her first summer as assistant cook – they now live in Whitley Bay and have two daughters and six grandchildren – but on a return visit, one stark image inspired the first Shetland novel. “There were lots of ravens, very black against the snow. So, because I’m a writer, I thought, ‘What if there were blood as well? And would ravens eat a body?’ I checked with Tim, who said they would. “Initially it was going to be a short story, and my editor said it would stretch credibility if I wrote more than one novel. But after the good reviews and winning the Dagger, we decided we could stretch to a series. My research in Shetland now is just sitting in croft kitchens, chatting and drinking lots of tea. I have such good relationships there, and I know they offered amazing support for the TV production.’ For a crime writer to have been picked up in relatively quick succession by both BBC One and ITV is rare.

Both Vera and Shetland, Cleeves says, have sprung from a working relationship with executive producer Elaine Collins, which began when the latter picked up a Vera Stanhope novel in Oxfam in Crouch End, north London. Cleeves admits the adaptations have impacted on her writing: “Brenda Blethyn is very much my Vera now,” she says. “I hear her voice when I write dialogue.” “Having a series on BBC One and one on ITV does feel a bit greedy,” she grins. “I have so many good friends who are crime writers, so I feel a bit embarrassed. ‘I’m really sorry, yours is just as good!’ And they are. It is just luck. If Elaine hadn’t walked into Oxfam it would never have happened…” Shetland begins on BBC One on Sunday 10 March and Monday 11 March at 9.00pm Macmillan: Series: Shetland Island Mysteries Newsletters & Alerts Shetland Island Mysteries Ann Cleeves' Shetland series is set in the most northerly community in the UK. The islands are closer to Norway than to Edinburgh and in their bleak beauty they have much in common with Scandinavia.

Her books feature Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez, who grew up in remote Fair Isle, and the mysteries are quiet, intense and give an insight into the domestic and working lives of Shetland Islanders. RAVEN BLACK, the first of the series, won the CWA Gold Dagger, and was adapted as a radio show in both the UK and Germany. RED BONES was made into a popular TV drama and six more episodes will be broadcast this year by the BBC under the series title SHETLAND. The books have been translated into more than 25 languages. Shetland Island Mysteries (Volume 7) Ann Cleeves Named one of The Guardian's Best Crime Books and Thrillers of 2016. Avaliable in: Shetland Island Mysteries (Volume 6) Ann Cleeves St. Martin's Press Shortlisted for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year In Thin Air, featuring Ann Cleeves' beloved Inspector Jimmy Perez, a group of old university friends leave the bright lights... Avaliable in: Shetland Island Mysteries (Volume 5) Ann Cleeves St.

Martin's Press Ann Cleeves returns to her critically acclaimed Shetland Island series with this stunning mystery featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, who readers will remember from Raven Black, White Nights, Red... Avaliable in: Shetland Island Mysteries (Volume 4) Ann Cleeves St. Martin's Press In the fourth book of Ann Cleeves' critically acclaimed series set in the Shetland Islands, Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez brings his fiancée home to Fair Isle, a birder's paradise, where strangers... Avaliable in: Shetland Island Mysteries (Volume 3) Ann Cleeves St. Martin's Press When a young archaeologist discovers a set of human remains, the locals are intrigued. Is it an ancient find - or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman fatally is shot and Ann Cleeves's... Avaliable in: Shetland Island Mysteries (Volume 2) Ann Cleeves St. Martin's Press The electrifying follow-up to the Dagger Award–winning Raven Black In this second thriller of the highly acclaimed Shetland Island series featuring Inspector Jimmy Perez, the launch...

Avaliable in: Shetland Island Mysteries (Volume 1) Ann Cleeves St. Martin's Press The basis for the hit series "Shetland" now airing on PBS Winner of Britain's coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, Ann Cleeves introduces a dazzling new suspense series to U.S. mystery... Avaliable in: About the author Ann Cleeves Ann Cleeves was working as a cook in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle when she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. She began writing her first series of crime novels here featuring the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival's first reader-in-residence and works as associate trainer with the reader development organization, Opening the Book. She is reader-in-residence for Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, and her reading passion is crime in translation.

Ann has twice before been short listed for a CWA Dagger Award - once for her short story "The Plater," and again for the Dagger in the Library award. Her short film for Border TV, Catching Birds, won a Royal Television Society Award. Her books include Harbour Street, The Moth Catcher, and Thin Air. Photo: Duncan Lawrie Ann Cleeves (Author of Raven Black) edit data Ann is the author of the books behind ITV's VERA, now in it's third series, and the BBC's SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann's DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann's Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands... Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs - child care officer, women's refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard - before going back to college and training to be a probation officer.

While she wa Ann is the author of the books behind ITV's VERA, now in it's third series, and the BBC's SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann's DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann's Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands... Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs - child care officer, women's refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard - before going back to college and training to be a probation officer. While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary.

They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. If a person's not heavily into birds - and Ann isn't - there's not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. Her first series of crime novels features the elderly naturalist, George Palmer-Jones. A couple of these books are seriously dreadful. In 1987 Tim, Ann and their two daughters moved to Northumberland and the north east provides the inspiration for many of her subsequent titles. The girls have both taken up with Geordie lads. In the autumn of 2006, Ann and Tim finally achieved their ambition of moving back to the North East. For the National Year of Reading, Ann was made reader-in-residence for three library authorities. It came as a revelation that it was possible to get paid for talking to readers about books! She went on to set up reading groups in prisons as part of the Inside Books project, became Cheltenham Literature Festival's first reader-in-residence and still enjoys working with libraries.

Ann Cleeves on stage at the Duncan Lawrie Dagger awards ceremony Ann's short film for Border TV, Catching Birds, won a Royal Television Society Award. She has twice been short listed for a CWA Dagger Award - once for her short story The Plater, and the following year for the Dagger in the Library award. In 2006 Ann Cleeves was the first winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award of the Crime Writers' Association for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland Quartet. The Duncan Lawrie Dagger replaces the CWA's Gold Dagger award, and the winner receives £20,000, making it the world's largest award for crime fiction. Ann's success was announced at the 2006 Dagger Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Hilton, in London's Aldwych, on Thursday 29 June 2006. She said: "I have never won anything before in my life, so it was a complete shock - but lovely of course.. The evening was relatively relaxing because I'd lost my voice and knew that even if the unexpected happened there was physically no way I could utter a word. So I wouldn't have to give a speech.

My editor was deputed to do it!" The judging panel consisted of Geoff Bradley (non-voting Chair), Lyn Brown MP (a committee member on the London Libraries service), Frances Gray (an academic who writes about and teaches courses on modern crime fiction), Heather O'Donoghue (academic, linguist, crime fiction reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement, and keen reader of all crime fiction) and Barry Forshaw (reviewer and editor of Crime Time magazine). Ann's books have been translated into sixteen languages. She's a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany. Her novels sell widely and to critical acclaim in the United States. Raven Black was shortlisted for the Martin Beck award for best translated crime novel in Sweden in 200 ...more Thin Air (Shetland): Amazon.co.uk: Ann Cleeves: 9780230760196: Books Thin Air (Shetland) Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Apple To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. or Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App . Product details Publisher: Macmillan; Main Market Ed. edition (11 Sept. 2014) Language: English Product Dimensions: 16.2 x 3.5 x 24 cm Average Customer Review: The sixth book in Ann Cleeves' Shetland series From the Inside Flap A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Unst, Shetland's most northerly island, to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends to a Shetlander. But late on the night of the wedding party, one of them, Eleanor, disappears - apparently into thin air. It's mid-summer, a time of light nights and unexpected mists. The following day, Eleanor's friend Polly receives an email. It reads like a suicide note, saying she'll never be found alive.

And then Eleanor's body is discovered, lying in a small loch close to the cliff edge. Detectives Jimmy Perez and Willow Reeves are dispatched to Unst to investigate. Before she went missing, Eleanor claimed to have seen the ghost of a local child who drowned in the 1920s. Her interest in the legend of the ghost had seemed unhealthy - obsessive, even - to her friends: an indication of a troubled mind. But Jimmy and Willow are convinced that there is more to Eleanor's death than there first appears. Is there a secret that lies behind the myth? One so shocking that someone would kill - many years later - to protect? Ann Cleeves' striking new Shetland novel explores the tensions between tradition and modernity that lie deep at the heart of a community, and how events from the past can have devastating effects on the present. Write a customer review Top Customer Reviews By EllyBlue TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on 14 Sept. 2014 Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase The Shetland series, featuring detective Jimmy Perez just gets better and better. This story is set in Unst in the north of the Shetland Isles.

A group of four friends are sharing a holiday cottage, Sletts, so they can attend the "hameferin' or post wedding celebration of friends from university, Lowrie (from Unst) and Caroline. Everything seems to be going well, but the night after the party, Eleanor disappears. An email purporting to be from Eleanor gives cause for concern about her safety and it is not long before her body is found, arranged in a stylised manner in a small, nearby loch. Eleanor had claimed to have seen the ghost of Peerie Lizzie, a young girl who had died on the shore in the 1920s, and the investigating team wonder whether the current events are in some way connected to a tragic story from long ago. Jimmy, with his superior Willow Reeves and Sandy Wilson are sent to investigate. It is a satisfyingly complex mystery to unravel, with many twists, turns and false leads before the final solution is revealed. Ann Cleeves is good on plot, but she is also excellent with her characters. Jimmy, Willow, Sandy and the cast of characters - some Shetlanders, some from further south are well drawn, with complex motivations for their actions.

If you haven't read the other Shetland novels, I would recommend that you do so before embarking upon this. There is enough of the back story to enable you to understand what has happened before, but you'll be spoiling the pleasure of watching the character of Jimmy Perez develop fully if you start here. Once again, it is the Shetlands themselves which are the star attraction here. Read more ›

Question: The book 'Red Bones' by Anne Cleeves was dramatised by the BBC, on which islands is it set?
Answer: Shetlands